Reporting at the routine government meeting today on Hanoi’s socioeconomic situation, Nguyen Duc Chung, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, said that in the past three days 200 tonnes of dead fish have been collected from West Lake. The fish have been transported to Nam Son garbage dump to be buried and treated.
The relevant government agencies have collected water samples from the lake to find the reason behind the massive wave of fish death. The city also installed 40 oxygen pumps installed at the lake and treated the water with chemicals.
Deputy Chairman of the People’s Committee of Tay Ho district Nguyen Le Hoang said that the environmental police is looking around the area to catch anyone dumping waste into the lake.
For the past few days, most restaurants and coffeeshops around the lake had to close because of the smell. The ones that remained open barely had any customers. These restaurants and coffeeshops had always been very crowded because people enjoyed the view and the breeze sweeping over the lake.
The lives of people living or working in the area have been deeply affected: a large number of residents had to temporarily move to relatives. Most of them said they had never seen fish dying at such a scale.
The mass dying of fish in West Lake started on October 1. Besides the companies in charge of managing and cleaning the lake, the fire department, and the regular and environment police forces, as well as other official agencies joined in the effort to collect and dispose of the dead fish and uncover the reason.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday asked the city of Hanoi to quickly find the reason and tackle the pollution in order to prevent a possible epidemic. Most importantly,he warned against eating the dead fish.
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Hanoi authorities look for cause behind West Lake catastrophe |
By Ha Duy
